


Picnic at the Catacombs

by avrelia



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Conversations, F/M, Picnics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 02:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18790735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avrelia/pseuds/avrelia
Summary: Dragonbone Catacombs: good place for romantic picnic or not? Mai and Zuko disagree.





	Picnic at the Catacombs

**Author's Note:**

> Written for May Maiko week 2019  
> Day 6: Endure  
> I’ve been fascinated by the panel in the Shadow and Smoke comic novel where Mai and Zuko disagree whether their date at the Dragonbone Catacombs was romantic or not, so I tried to imagine how that date might have gone.

That day started out very nice. Zuko promised something really interesting and was almost jumping from excitement himself. They met at the palace gate and walked together hand in hand. 

“Where are we going?”

“Dragonbone Catacombs. I think you haven’t been there.”

“Of course not, it’s the Fire lords’ graveyard. Why would I visit it?”

“Well, you were getting in some strange places with Azula, it’s hard to find a place you haven’t been to before.” 

“We only were in the palace. And there are plenty of places I haven’t been to.” 

“It’s cool, I’ll show you!” They walked in, Zuko bowed to the bowing fire sages, and opened the entrance with his firebending.” Mai admitted it looked cool, but still couldn’t understand why did they need to go inside. They descended the stairs and ended up in dark and damp corridor. Mai had a horrible flashback, but Zuko held her hand and led her through the corridor, past the pictures of fire lords and statues of dragons until they came to a room lit with candles with a mat on the floor and food and tea tastefully arranged on it.

“What is it?”

“A picnic!”

“Why is it here?”

“I thought it would be romantic, look!”

“It’s dark and damp and full of your stupid dead ancestors. What’s romantic about it?”

“I thought you might like it.”

“Because I am cranky and depressed? I had enough of dark and damp places when I was in prison. I’ve had my fill of them, thank you.”

He looked stricken; this obviously didn’t occurred to him. To be honest, most of the time Mai didn’t think about prison herself, but the damp smell had brought really vivid memories, all of them unpleasant. Zuko looked dejected, and Mai took pity on him. He did have good intentions, after all. He couldn’t know – they didn’t talk about her being in prison. It didn’t really matter, that couple of weeks. Except now they suddenly did. 

“Let’s just eat, would be stupid to let all this food to to waste.”

He smirked. “You love food more than me.”

She fought the desire to throw something heavy at him. “Of course. I cannot live without it, and it doesn’t make stupid surprises.” 

“I wanted to make a nice surprise.”

“There are no nice surprises. All surprises are bad by definition. I would think a childhood with Azula taught you better than that.” She sighed. “It certainly taught me.”

“I had some great surprises.”

“That’s because you are an idiot.” But she couldn’t be annoyed with him any more. Mai sat down on the mat and patted the place beside her, motioning Zuko to join her there. He promptly did. 

“I’ve never asked you about being in prison. I didn’t think, I guess, that it was too different from me being on the Boiling Rock.”

“You were there like what? A couple of days? Planning to break out the whole time. For me… well, I wasn’t in prison for long, either, but some part of me really believed it was forever. And the feeling that I’ll always stay there in the dark smelly room was… not the one I want to experience again.”

“I am sorry, Mai.” He took her hand and squeezed it gently. She squeezed back. 

“Well beside that, and other stuff… it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t got struck by lightning, Ty Lee was there and then we made new friends, many guards knew me and we polite just in case, and I didn’t have to think about Azula any more.” 

Zuko smiled, then frowned. “You really thought it was forever?”

Mai shrugged. “Part of me, yes. Another part really didn’t want to think about anything. And another hoped that everything you said then was true.” 

“It was. It is. Sorry you endured all that.” Mai busied herself exploring food without answering anything. Sonam, the palace cook, prepared fabulous picnic for them: tiny dumplings, tiny cakes, several flavors of mochi. 

Zuko laughed watching Mai tasting pieces of everything. “I think Sonam loves you.”

“That’s because I appreciate her art. I wonder what’s that made of?” She held in her palm a cake that looked like a strawberry and bit into it. “It’s doesn’t taste like strawberry at all.”

Zuko took her palm and took a bite out of cake, too. “Maybe pineapple? Better leave it a mystery.” He quickly finished the cake and licked crumbs from Mai’s palm.

“Yeew, stop it!” She cleaned her hand. “Take your own cake and lick it”

“Sorry.” He grinned apologetically. 

“It felt weird; don’t do it again.” 

“Okay.” He leaned and kissed her. “Is that better?”

“Much better.”

They ate for a while in silence, then Mai said, “Why did you decide to have a picnic here, of all places?”

“I like it here. And I thought… I wanted to show it to you.”

“You like it? I never thought you morbid. Hugging graves and eating in catacombs doesn’t really suit you.”

Zuko laughed. “No, it doesn’t, I guess. I kind of stopped thinking about graves here. It’s also personal archives of previous fire lords and a secret library. I first came here to read the diary of fire lord Sozin, and after that I discovered a lot of stuff here nobody knows about. History of the Fire Nation, politics… Very useful. Fascinating and heartbreaking – so many stupid decisions I cannot undo.” 

Mai took his hand in hers. “You can’t undo anything, Zuko. You might just do better than they did.”

“I guess. There is so much I don’t know.”

“Does it have all the history?”

“I suppose so. I haven’t found the pre-Sozin time yet, but even Sozin and Azulon left so much to read. Remember, when we were kids, we were talking about past and legends of Fire Nations, and little we learned from our teachers. And now even that little turned out to be lies, mostly. I am now only starting to untangle all that, here.”

Mai looked at the walls of the catacombs, absentmindedly caressing Zuko’s hand. There seemed to be some kind of pictures on the walls, little stick figures telling their stories. “It’s all well and good, Zuko, but why do it here, alone? What use of truth if you alone know it? Didn’t we move past it?”

“You are welcome to be here with me.”

“Thanks, but no.” Mai dropped his hand and turned to face him. “I thought we’ve established that I don’t like this place. And there is no need to stay here to read it. Besides, if it’s just the two of us, it won’t make much difference. You could probably get some younger fire sages or acolytes to come and copy the important stuff and put it in the library.”

“Hey, it’s my ancestors’ personal archives! I can’t let just anyone...”

“Your ancestors personal actions influenced lives of all the Fire Nation. And the world.”

Zuko huffed and turned away. 

“Think about it.”

Zuko continued staring at a distance, and Mai wondered what exactly he saw there, in his mind. She thought that he again covers himself with a cape of loneliness, feeling that he alone should be responsible for everything, and her heart broke a little. She moved closer, in his embrace, held his face in her hands and kissed him lightly. 

“You’re going to be a good fire lord, but you can’t do everything alone. Not even the two of us, even thought I am always there to help.” 

That got his attention, just as she hoped. Zuko looked in Mai’s eyes, grinned and kissed her back. The kiss started light and sweet, and the longer it lasted the deeper and hungrier it became, so Mai had to jump up, panting. 

“Let’s go up. I’ve endured enough of this place.”

“Admit, it wasn’t so bad to endure, Mai!” 

“It wasn’t. But I’d rather be with you in the sunlight. Let’s go, I really miss the fresh air.”

They gathered the remnants of their picnic and left the Dragonbone catacombs holding hands. Zuko walked her home, and after all the goodbyes he said, with the twinkle in his eyes, “I think it was romantic, after all.”

Mai smiled. “No, it wasn’t.”


End file.
